1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates generally to a clamp device used in the field of cardiovascular procedures, which includes vessels of the coronary arteries and heart, for retaining, identifying and locating surgical wire, individual wires and or coils of wire without damage to the wire and wires for patients on a sterile field and providing guiding surfaces for moving a wire or wires there through in a surgical procedure without injury to the wire or wires being used in the patient.
2. Background of the Invention
In cardiovascular procedures, such as coronary artery procedures, the patient is laid out under a sterile drape and a sheath is inserted into the patient through a round opening in the sterile drape at a location such as the lower right or left groin area of the patient. During the procedure a guide wire is inserted through a sheath into the patient and has its proximal end moved to a location within the body of the patient to an area for the particular treatment. This wire or wires is used as a control delivery system for moving treatment devices, such as a balloon catheter, over the wire to the locations in the body of the patient and the distal end of the guide wire remains outside the patient's body on the sterile drape. Many times the guide wire must be moved back and forth into and out of the patient to find the specific location in the patient's body where the treatment is to occur. This whole length of guide wire must be retained on the sterile drape at all times to keep it sterile during the procedure. This means the distal end of the guide wire may have to be coiled and secured for retention on the sterile drape and maintained in an identified and fixed location to keep the proximal end of the guide wire in its proper location in the patient. However any retention device for the guide wires must not crimp or put a bend in the wire less the wire be rendered useless and have to be replaced which is not desired in a surgical procedure.
In some cases it is necessary to run more than one guide wire into the same sheath located in a patient because the second wire must be advanced to a secondary blood vessel which will receive treatment in the same surgical procedure as the primary vessel. In such a case it is important both to identify the location of the guide wires in the primary and secondary vessel which have received a primary and secondary wire inserted into their respective locations in the patient based on the distal ends outside the patient. This means that the distal end of the guide wires have to be identified as the primary wire or the secondary wire so that the procedure such as a balloon catheter intended for primary blockage in a blood vessel can receive the proper catheter and the secondary vessel can receive the proper balloon catheter for it or just be available for a different purpose. The distal end of each of these guide wires must be identified to prevent errors as to which location in the patient the proximal end of the wire is located, because in many cases the wires are the same gauge and look the same. Also the distance of the wires and the location of their proximal ends in the patient need to be determined as well for the proper wire for delivery of the surgical devices being implanted by distribution over the wires to be achieved. If the distal end of the wire or wires are fixed at a location on the surgical drape after the proximal end is properly located in the patient, then the proximal end of the wire will be in the same location in the patient if the clamp is in a fixed position on the sterile drape, which is another reason for locating the distal end of the wire in a fixed location on the sterile drape.
In all these cases, the wire or wires must be easy to release for manipulation both into and out of the patient and must provide reserve lengths of wire if that becomes necessary for running the wire or wires and the reserves of wire into the patient. The reserves of wire or wires must be coiled and stored on the sterile field. Also the wires must be retained in such way that they are easy to release from a coil or from a fixed position and then moved through guiding devices to prevent bending or crimping the wires in the process of moving them both into the patient and back outward of the patient for either relocation or adjustment of their location in the patient. This process of going from a fixed position coil of wire being secured in a clamp and then into a guiding device for threading the wire or wires there through has created clutter on the sterile field and has required additional time for the surgical team to move from the release of the coiled wires to its insertion through a guiding device for further insertion into a patient.